This invention is directed to a mixer for homogenization of cell suspensions.
It is essential for research or diagnosis of living cells to provide the cell in suspension. Otherwise, supply of nutrition or gases may be restricted to diffusion, unwanted cell-cell interaction occurs and/or processing steps like counting or analysis of the cells is hampered.
It is long known to suspend cells by mechanical mixing or stiffing. For suspending cells in laboratory scale, it is furthermore known to use magnetic mixing, which are driven by interaction with an external, rotating magnet. Mechanical and magnetic mixing of cells suspensions are for example disclosed in DE4413463, DE900542.5 or DE10200601447.
The downside of the known systems is that the magnetic propellers either are in physical contact with the surface (bottom) of the mixing vessel or are not able to homogenously stir the whole volume of the cell suspension, especially in tube-like mixing vessels or are not appropriate for liquid volumes of less than 50 μl.